Lebanese and Israeli negotiators have compiled a narrowed selection of nations that could deploy military personnel to oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah as part of an American-mediated treaty, a Lebanese official informed Reuters on Friday.
The final determination regarding which governments will participate rests with Washington.
While the Lebanese representative chose not to reveal the specific countries involved or the size of the shortlist, prior disclosures from a separate Lebanese official and two foreign diplomats indicated that both American and Israeli negotiators rejected France from consideration.
The list was established during bilateral discussions hosted at the United States Embassy in Rome earlier this week. The sessions served as the latest effort to operationalize a June 26 pact linking a incremental pullout of Israeli military forces from Lebanese territory to the independent monitoring of Hezbollah's disarmament.
Hezbollah itself is not a signatory to the arrangement and maintains its refusal to relinquish its weaponry.
"We have reached a short list of countries. We decided which parties were impossible for each and set the potential actors," the Lebanese representative stated to Reuters, adding, "The Americans will now decide, and could pick more than one country."
Israel's Foreign Ministry offered no immediate statement regarding the compiled list. A State Department representative refrained from elaborating on the specific options discussed, noting only that the sessions were "productive on the technical and expert levels".
American diplomats have consistently sought an end to hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group, which escalated in March alongside the broader conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
The Lebanese official noted that Beirut previously turned down a suggestion to employ commercial defense firms for third-party verification.
"All of the actors proposed are countries. We still need to discuss exactly how this would work, how many forces would be deployed and how they would work with the Lebanese army," the official explained.
Structuring the legal framework for foreign troops inside Lebanon remains an open question. One pathway involves integrating the contingent into the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose existing mandate concludes at the end of December.
Pursuing that option would necessitate a new United Nations Security Council resolution - a move both Washington and Jerusalem are now open to exploring, which the Lebanese official cited as a major advance. Other mechanisms under review include placing personnel under a separate UN body or drafting a direct bilateral memorandum of understanding with the Lebanese government.
However, negotiators failed to reach consensus regarding the next area from which Israeli forces should withdraw to allow for Lebanese state troop deployments. Lebanese negotiators had proposed the heavily damaged towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiam, where Israeli bombardments have destroyed entire residential blocks.
Formal negotiations are scheduled to resume in early September.
The foundational framework announced in Washington on June 26 by the United States, Israel, and Lebanon outlines a phased Israeli military pullout paired with the introduction of Lebanese army units, designed to begin across two initial "pilot zones".
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)